Not seen one of these before????

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... SS:GB:1123

It looks like a pull release type mech? I bet Baz can tell us about it??

[Basil Henriques]

Yep "Pull Release" an absolute pig to tune, plus, adding knee levers would be not that easy and quite difficult to tune the E-F and E-D# changes..Ernie Ball died September 9, 2004 and YES he DID play Steel Guitar..

From Wikipedia:-

Born Sherwood Roland Ball in Santa Monica, California, USA, “Ernie” Ball grew up in a musical family. His grandfather wrote the standard, When Irish Eyes Are Smiling and his father was a car salesman who taught Hawaiian steel guitar on the side. Although Ball initially picked up the steel at age nine to please his father, he became bored and gave it up. In his early teens he began to take a renewed interest in the instrument, practicing as many as three hours a day. Within a year he was a member of the Musicians Union.

Musician

While still in his early teens, Ball began playing professionally in South Central Los Angeles beer bars. By age 19 he joined the Tommy Duncan Band playing pedal steel guitar. Duncan, the former lead singer with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, took the band on tour through the Southwestern United States. During the Korean War, he did a tour of duty in the United States Air Force Band, playing guitar and bass drum. After the military he returned to Los Angeles and continued playing in barrooms and lounges, until landing a job on the 1950s “Western Varieties” program at KTLA television. The position soon gained him wider recognition in the Los Angeles music scene and led to studio work and teaching jobs.